SB Week In Review: 6/6 - 6/12

Another week in Hallyu land has come and gone. While this week was not overflowing with comebacks — Big Bang and Exo appear to a lock-down in that department — plenty transpired this week. While some headlines had us shaking our head (cough fan wars), we were also graced with news of a lot of great things to look forward to this summer! In case you missed it, here’s what went down this week:

Serious News

South Korea continues to battle the spread of MERS. This week the number of infected patients rose to over 100, with over 3,000 now in quarantine and many still waiting on test results. The viral infection also claimed its ninth victim this week. Although the spread of MERS seems limited to hospitals and is not airborne, public fear resulted in nearly 3,000 school closures and a decrease in travel and culture spending. The impact of the MERS scare has even spread into the Hallyu sphere with multiple concert and fan meet cancellations. Major safety modifications were also made to the upcoming TVXQ concert.

A netizen has been sentenced to jail time after making a series of aggressive and inappropriate comments online about Honey Lee.

Comebacks and Debuts

Zico dropped yet another mix tape complete with the confrontational lyrics his diss tracks have become known for.

Sechs Kies’ member, and K-pop veteran, Eun Ji-won returned for the first time since 2012 with the mini album Trauma and a lead single MV of the same name.

Melody Day returned with “#LoveMe.” In the summer of girl group comebacks, it looks like they beat AOA to the “sports” concept.

MBLAQ returned for the first time as a trio with “Mirror” on June 8. If the content of the MV wasn’t enough to hint at it, the members also confirmed that the lyrics of betrayal were based on the recent departure of former members Thunder and Lee Joon.

Lee Seung-gi made his much awaited return with the track “And Goodbye” and his sixth album And… We’re excited to see him back!

Teasers and Announcements

AOA kicked off teasers for their “Heart Attack” comeback with ambiguous Instagram posts followed by a video teaser starring Choa.

The members of Sistar started to tease their upcoming comeback (and badass concept) on their personal Instagram accounts. Each member uploaded a photo with the caption “Who am I?” Later they posted a series of silhouette photos captioned with their comeback identities.

Both Girl’s Day and Sistar will be returning with Duble Sidekick tracks. Let the battle begin.

EXID also added their name to the list of girl group summer comebacks with their return slated for August.

Along with the impending girl group summer takeover, Girl’s Day have been confirmed for the next series of One Fine Day while the ladies of EXID are next up for Showtime.

Infinite‘s Sungjong will be the next idol to join the cast of Real Men.

Everyone and their cousin will be guesting on KBS‘s Producer. This week the network announced the upcoming cameos of Ryeowook, K.Will and Park Bo Gum.

2PM released a heap of teaser images for their upcoming fifth album and single “Our House.”

Beast‘s Dongwoon is gearing up for solo Japanese promotions.

Apparently, Brown Eyed Girls member Miryo will be making a solo comeback sometime in July before the eventual group comeback. Rumors also surfaced that BEG was nearing disbandment; however, they were quickly denied.

Jang Jae-in released a preview video for her upcoming mini-album Liquid.

Teen Top is planning to return sometime this June with “Natural Born” and released both individual and group teasers on June 8 and 9.

Cube gave a vague statement regarding Beast’s comeback, saying they are currently in the midst of preparations and are shooting for a July return… though no promises can be made.

Other News

Rumors surfaced regarding the disbandment of 2NE1, but Papa YG was quick to step in and deny them. He even went so far as to say that fans should expect a release later this year.

For anyone who had doubts, f(x)‘s Victoria made it quite clear that she has no intention of prematurely terminating her contract with SM. Now if only we could get real clarification on Sulli‘s status in the group.

SM confirmed Yunho‘s enlistment date to be July 21. While many Cassie hearts are breaking, they can at least be comforted with his solo Japanese release before his impending absence.

Heechul cut his hair, for real this time — not like that little trim he had back in January. In other hair news, all of SNSD showed up at the airport sporting new hair-dos, increasing anticipation of their upcoming comeback.

The fanwar between EXO-L and VIPs continued to boil over this week as both groups continued their promotions. While the fandoms were already throwing shade going into the week, a series of voting issues with both Inkigayo and Mnet only added fuel to the fire.

BTS basically made everyone’s day by releasing a special series of awkward “family” photographs in celebration of their 2015 BTS Festa.

Pledis Entertainment confirmed that After School member Jungah is dating basketball player Jung Chang-young.

Actors Lee Jun-ki and Lee Yoo-bi were both injured on the set of MBC‘s The Scholar Who Walks the Night. Wishing them both a quick recovery!